In front of the Church of San Giovanni e Paolo you’ll find the bronze monument dedicated to a general called Bartolomeo Colleoni as he rides proudly on his horse. It was sculpted by a Florentine man known as Verrocchio, master of the young Leonardo da Vinci. It is the first statue in history of a horse with one leg raised; you must consider how difficult it must have been to find the right proportions to keep such a heavy weight standing on only three legs.
Famously, Colleoni had fought many battles on behalf of the Venetians, who granted him a place of burial anywhere he wished; he requested his statue be placed in front of San Marco. Though he did not specify, there was no doubt he meant the Basilica of St.Mark’s in the famous Piazza, but the Venetian state, always adverse to blatant individual idolization, decided to misunderstand his intention, and place it here, since the building next to the church was at the time the Scuola Grande di San Marco. They did in fact do what he had asked, even if not what he had intended.